29...and still a Virgin

29...und noch Jungfrau; romantic comedy, Germany, 2006; D: Holger Haase, S: Anna Kubin, Oliver Bootz, Oliver Wnuk, Martina Hill, Vera Baranyai

Vic is a sweet girl. She is 29, handsome, intelligent, funny...and still a virgin. She never thought it would take it so long, but every time she tried to get intimate with a guy, something went wrong. Björn, her roommate, is her best friend, and even he doesn't know that secret. Ironically, Vic gets a job at a redaction giving teenagers advice about intercourse. There she falls in love with a colleague, Nik, and they go out an a date. But afraid of how he might react if he finds out she is still a virgin, Vic decides to first loose her virginity and then sleep with him. Her four friends try to help her out, but none of the men turns out to be Vic's cup of tea. Suddenly, Vic starts again falling in love with Björn, who was also one of the guys she tried to seduce years ago, but he is already engaged. At the wedding, Björn breaks up with her fiance and admits to Vic that he still loves her. In the end, she finally has her first time with him.

Rarely can one get so plenty for so little; "29...and still a Virgin" is an cheaply produced German TV film that didn't seem promising, but that thanks to its energy and spirit managed to break lose from the standards and limitations of an ordinary achievement shaped by an television format. The story and the title itself are a typical cheap bait for public, but instead of vulgarity and stupidity the authors actually offered a gentle, touching romantic comedy full of understanding, in which the main protagonist in desperate "sexuality drought" trouble is actually a girl, Vic, who was played brilliantly by Anna Kubin. Some gags are unbelievable, for instance when Vic is driving a bicycle on the street with a giant male puppet in her arm, or when she has to run away in her underwear on the street at night from an angry, jealous woman with whose husband she wanted to lose her virginity. At one point Vic even makes a reference at the American comedy "The 40 Year Old Virgin". Some clumsy scenes and the predictably sugary happy end only marginally reduce the amusing film as a whole, because despite it' flaws it always nice to find a small film whose charm transcends boundaries of the language, culture and the budget.

Grade:++